I've really enjoyed having bulbs in the house for the winter. I'm not sure why

but the amaryllis got a really slow start and even though I planted them a week before

Thanksgiving, the first one didn't bloom until the end of January.

This Lemon Star variety put on an amazing show with two stalks

blooming at the same time. The other amaryllis bloomed while I was sick so I didn't get a photo but it's sending up a second shoot so I have another chance.

I started the yellow paperwhites at the beginning of February

and they should be opening in the next week.

The snow has melted away and the Endless Summer hydrangea are starting

to reveal themselves... a little crushed.

Since this is the first winter we've had a heavy snow since planting them, it'll

be a good test to see how they handle the heavy snow pack.

I dropped my Lumix camera when I was out taking pictures during Hurricane Sandy. It limped along, with grinding sound each time I turned it on and the lens extended itself. It finally succumbed to its injuries after taking pictures of the Christmas tree. I've been on an austerity program trying to save money for the house so I borrowed a camera from a friend...which I proceeded to drop after doing the door knocker photos. Oops. It's doing okay but I'm going to have to buy two cameras now.

Then my computer died in January. I'm hoping I can get all of my photos off the old hard drive but they may be lost. When the computer started to act up, I was at least smart enough to e-mail myself some of the photos I had taken for future posts (like the last soup post).

I thought I might hang it up but I decided I'd miss you all so much. I got a new MacBook Air (which I love) but I'm having a terrible time with iPhoto. Does anyone use iPhoto '11 and have trouble with cropping? It's driving me crazy.

I'm trying to get the house spruced up for an appraisal and I'm going to try to refinance. If you have a mortgage, have you looked at interest rates? Lenders have gotten much more strict since I bought the house but I'm going to give it a go.

You may recall I had taken off the bathroom door to strip it and I never got to it before the weather turned cold. There sat the door in the bedroom all winter. I had stripped to this hinges, door knobs and backplates so I rehung the door and replaced the hardware.

I kind of like the crusty backplate and I'm love with the Bennington knob

I found under about 10 layers of paint.

See the damage to the ceiling from the roof leak? Not too bad but it's the first thing

I notice when I walk in the room.

I'll do a better repair later but I just painted it and it's barely noticeable.

I just hope the appraiser isn't a follower!

I'm embarrassed to show this. When I painted the bedroom floor,

I had to keep the door closed to keep the cats out so I wasn't able to paint the threshold.

And I did nothing about it until today!

Ahhh. So much better!

I don't why it took me five years to figure out I should add some track lights to the kitchen.

I have only one light in the middle of the room and it's sometimes difficult to see what I'm cooking when it's dark outside. What an inexpensive way to add a lot of light.

The chair is one of a pair that a friend gave me when he was buying new furniture. I thought

the modern pieces would be an interesting addition to the living room but it's unfortunate they're too deep to have them at opposite ends of the coffee table. I'd have to buy a smaller coffee table. When something free requires buying something to make it work, I'm not sure it makes sense.

Toward the end of last summer, my neighbors had a fire in their house. It was a scary day but it was nice to see neighbors pull together to offer whatever they could to help them get through it. When I found out they needed a bed, I offered my guest bed. While it seems like a big sacrifice, I had been considering getting a new bed for the guest room so it seemed like a perfect fit. All of this goes to explain why the twin spindle bed has been moved to the guest room. I love how it looks and would like to get a new queen-sized version in this style. Do you know anyone who makes one?